The Mysterious Ways and Means

 Alright now, stay with me on this. We all know the origin of Jesus. It's pretty wild, but millions of people believe it. I'm not a religion expert, but all the big-time religions have pretty wild backstories that, in their own way, might make Scientology look plausible and mainstream. They all make you say at some point: "Well, why not?" This is because everybody's Lord moves in mysterious ways. It's a very convenient 'out' when religious leaders can't explain stuff rationally, which is most of the time. 

It is amazing that so many people, all over the world, wrap themselves up in whichever religion is practiced in their area. Religion as a whole seems to be first about location, but then about market share. How people become a member of a religion is different here and there. In America, you are often the religion that your parents were raised in. Technically, as I was confirmed a Lutheran because my mom was, that makes me a Lutheran. It's usually passed down through families. In the middle east, you might be Islamic because, if you are not, you'd be killed for being an infidel. That's a tradition all in its own. 

I don't consider myself Lutheran at all. Getting confirmed was just something the seven of us kids had to do to earn our freedom, like piano lessons or joining the Cub Scouts. If you wanted Christmas presents or Easter candy, you had to play along. I was onto the hypocrisy at a pretty early age. My own and that of the church in general. But as a kid, you do what you gotta do to get by. 

I think a lot of adults do that too. Most adults know enough about the ways of the world to really stop and look at the religious training of their youth as kids' stuff designed to make you behave. But also, by adulthood they recognize that they have to do it to their own children, and they get sucked back into it as a legacy of sorts. But also, in adulthood you find that going to church has social, political and even work advantages. Adulthood is very competitive and being a church goer- even if you are going to the 'wrong' church- is a respected thing to do. It has been for years. It's still a good label to have even though fewer people in the US are apt to consider themselves members of any church here in 2025 in the United States. Yep, they are losing that market share across the board. They are panicking.

Religion is a business. You know that. Just because there are poor pastors, ministers, monks and preachers, doesn't mean that there isn't a profit motive. It just means that there are some people not very good at spreading the word for fun and profit, mostly profit. It's like you can't say there isn't greed in capitalism because there are so many small businesses struggling to make ends meet. The American dream isn't to own your own business and prosper, it's to start a business and get bought out by a corporation. 

Those corporations have long been jealous, I suspect, of churches because of their tax-free status with the IRS. Well, that's kinda odd because everything I hear about corporations now- the big ones- is that they don't exactly pay anything resembling a fair share of taxes, if they pay anything at all. Trump and other republicans have made that their Job 1 the last several decades. It is THE most important issue anytime there is- or isn't- a republican in office. I really get a kick out of that shit. You don't want to pay any taxes, so instead you pay a congressman (or, now a president) millions of dollars so that you don't have to pay millions of dollars in taxes! Make that make sense!

Karl Marx (the unfunny one of the Marx Brother's family) said that "religion is the opiate of the masses". He may have also said, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him". That's pretty heady stuff and- dammit- both are spot on. 

People have toiled away at miserable lives here on earth for thousands of years, because of the promise of a great reward in heaven for doing so. They still fall for that. There is absolutely no physical or scientific proof that Heaven or Hell exists, yet grown men and women tell other grown men and women (and children) that it does. And people fall for that, in pretty much every language known to man. To sell that to the masses is the capitalist dream. 

Religion and politics have always been intertwined, but now with Project 2025 and Trump, it's really for all the marbles. They aren't literally coming out and saying, "It's because it's what God wants you to do" but that's heavily implied. This is because Trump is the new Jesus, the other only begotten son of God, the father almighty. You see, the commies were right, there has to be a God. There must be an unseen force behind it or the whole thing doesn't work. There has to be an entity for a closet case like Mike Johnson to pray to, to get people to believe in Trump and "The Big Beautiful Bill" or it all falls apart. It has to make just that much sense. If God be for us, who could be against us? There is always that to fall back upon. 

Personally, I think Trump has already been elevated to God status. I'm going to tell you, that though none of us will be around to see it, in several generations he will be revered as having been a God on earth to whoever occupies this dump that he had helped to destroy. It's human nature to discover an all-knowing, all-powerful entity, in need of worship, and then work that into people's sad lives...to give them hope and the promise of a great beyond. It will be big and beautiful, like no one has ever seen before. 

It's going to happen. I can't prove it, but I don't have to! Because I believe...